Shithead Taro
Pantyhose Taro (パンスト太郎, Pansuto-Tarō?), a young martial artist, who is born in Jusenkyo. Happosai helps his mother with the birth, and accidentally bathes him in the most accursed spring in the area, and because of the customs of the village, Happosai also names him. Appearance Pantyhose Taro is incredibly handsome with almost Bishonen-good looks, but there is something hard and well-weathered about his edges, and his eyes are cold, condescending and even quite palpably hostile. He wears a shirt of silvery scale-armor over a silken shirt and pantaloons. Taro's cursed form is a chimera resembling either a stereotypical demon or minotaur, with small crane wings which allow him to fly great distances despite his enormous size, and an eel sticking out of his lower back which works as a second set of eyes for Taro during combat. While others hate their cursed forms, he takes pride in the form's strength and durability in battle History Pantyhose is introduced stalking Nabiki, Ukyo, Shampoo, Beiko, Kodachi and Akane as the pregnant woman were out together with their kids and spouses in an effort to find Happosai. When Ranma and Ryoga showed up the group decided to return home where he was nearly discovered by Perfume luckily she wrote it off. Quickly following them he arrived in time to witness Kasumi defeat the possessed Ryoga making a note to watch out for her. When Happosai arrived Taro watched as his gave Lylac, Ekko, and Fragrance candy waiting until the guest started to leave before sneaking into the house. Finding Keiko as she was watching after Kodachi as she went to the bathroom. He immediately knocked her out. He then made his way to the dojo where he finally made his presence known. Happosai initially didn’t recognize him but instantly recognized him. There was an almost universal cry of surprise from the Tendo Posse at hearing his name, but Taro ignored it and continued to address his God-father a revelation that was equally as surprising to the posse. Pantyhose explained who he was and why he was there and unsurprisingly they kind of agreed with him Ranma even went so far as point out to Happosai that growing up being named after underwear had to have been hard. Equally as unsurprising the old man didn’t grant his request. While they tried to convince him Happosai wouldn’t budge even shocking them when he started lecturing them on the importance of a persons name and how it takes more than a name to define a person’s character. Even as they scoffed at Happosai having the audacity to lecture someone on character. They couldn’t deny that he had a point when he pointed out that even if he did change Taro’s name he would still be the same arrogant pup who waltzed in the dojo demanding he have his way and not asking. By this point Taro had heard enough and though Ranma tried to warn him that trying to force Happosai to change his mind would he just ignored him. Not only insulting Ranma but the others as well. Perfume was about to make her displeasure known when she became distracted by the sudden appearance of Kasumi, Kodachi and an obviously injured Keiko. Taro was totally unapologetic upon the reveal that he had sucker punched Keiko. Though he did express how impressed he was that Keiko had woken up so soon. By this point Ranma had heard enough. After a brief fight, between him, Ranma and Perfume in which he proved superior Ranma called on the aid of Sharil. Unfortunately Happosai remembered to late about Taro’s cursed form. The monstrous Bull-Taro snarled and brought down a fist the size of a beer keg upon that portion of the Tendo porch where Happosai was standing and summarily missed hitting the old man but managed to nonetheless bowl over those standing near to him even though he came no closer to direct contact of their persons than a full meter. Nabiki, Shampoo, Keiko and Kodachi all went tumbling onto their sides or whatever furniture was in their way while an entire section of the patio floor collapsed, even as Happosai darted to relative safety. Only Kasumi remained unaffected, while Ukyo, Perfume-neko and Ranma looked on with total dismay at the mishap befalling their loved ones. Ranma called upon Latisha next but Taro just grabbed the semi-solid body of Sharil before the elemental could think to revert to her natural state and threw her like a softball at his fiery assailant. Sharil's body reverted to steam as she hit the fireball directly and her misted form flowed all over Latisha, smothering out her flames as the two elementals collapsed into their constituent elemental bodies. Ranma launched himself at Taro in rage only to be savagely back-handed by a fist so huge that it was as though he were a ball being swatted by a massive brick-bat. The force was sufficient to stun even him as he went crashing backwards into the double-doors of the dojo. Happosai had finally seen enough furious at seeing Taro hurt his family. Taro seemed incapable of intelligible speech while in his transformed state yet was more than able to express his meaning as he raised his fists, intent on driving home his point upon his nominal godfather. Only to be caught in Mousse’s chains. Taro prepared to free himself from the chains only wrapped up in a cocoon of panties by Happosai. Unfortunately Taro was resourcefulness enough his own hot-and-cold water supply so reverted back to his true form to escape. At this point it was Keiko who attacked him only for him to use his water to activate his curse. He then picked her up by her neck and demanded that Happosai change his name or he’d break it. Even as the old man prepared to move in defense of the hapless Keiko there was one who moved even faster than he could blink, and all at once Kasumi was standing over the arrogant boy, who barely even had time to recognize his present danger. The next moment Taro found himself being yanked off the ground by a hand that gripped the collar of his scale-mail shirt, and all at once he was dangling by one arm staring into the red-eyed face of Death, for the Kasumi he faced now was baring her fangs and showing her true Vampiric nature. Kasumi ignoring the cries of her friends and family was about to strangle Taro to death when she heard another voice speaking in her mind causing her realize what she was doing and let him go. Despite his anger Ranma went to check if Taro was okay only to be brushed aside. Telling Happosai that it wasn’t over Taro set his foot in the koi pond to activate his curse and kidnapped Nabiki. Ranma was quick to summon the winds of Karina to carry him aloft as he started to rise into the air in pursuit of both Nabiki and her abductor. Though he had begun the match purely as an exercise in testing the strength of his potential adversaries, Taro had never dreamed of himself winding up in the present situation wherein he was chased by a flying man wielding elemental powers while he himself was holding said fellow's pregnant wife in his brawny arms while fleeing as if for his very life through the center of the Neriman district, while further to his rear his real quarry, Happosai, was giving pursuit of his own, which had been Taro's original intention. It was not that he was retreating from the fray in cowardice, he most emphatically insisted, but when faced with a young man gifted with strange abilities of an entirely unknown quality it was only logical to take steps to gain much needed distance. And here he thought the other flying girl would be the real problem, what with the surprising speed, strength and sheer animal-like ferocity with which she had momentarily come near to choking Taro to death, to say nothing of her martial arts skills, which were nothing less than phenomenal to Taro's considerable experience. And then there was Happosai himself, who had proven to be rather a bit more formidable than expected. Obviously there was no way that Taro could take all three of them on by himself without further study of their abilities and a gradual determination of their respective weaknesses, if any. And so he ran on powerful legs with the speed of a charging bull loping through town and either vaulting or crashing through what obstacles obstructed his path, always just a few steps ahead of getting his tail fried as the boy behind him wielded his elemental flames, attempting to nail the massive Taro in order to bring a halt to his escape. Just how exactly the young husband to the girl he had just kidnapped could maintain his flight while summoning fire was as much a mystery to Taro as his ability to summon those two curious ladies whose bodies seemed to be composed of nothing so much as flame and water. Obviously some sort of a magician, but Taro knew how to deal with that kind in his travels, and if the youth rashly attempted to close the distance or come to within arms reach he would discover first hand just how quickly Taro could move, or just how powerful he truly was while in his cursed form. And it was tempting enough to do just that in order to shut the fool up with his needless, incessant taunting. Unfortunately Taro's bull-head voice was unable to form more coherent sounds so that he might retort in some suitable fashion, so he was left merely to grunt and bray in anger while keeping a firm grip on the struggling woman in his arms since she was seeking to escape him ever bit as much as her husband was intent upon her rescue. No way would Taro let go of his only ace in the hole, however, and so he gripped her as tightly as he dared to do without actually hurting her since he did not wish to see her harmed at this particular time. Doing so would, after all, defeat the purpose. Fortunately, however, Taro still possessed his wits and cunning and was intelligent enough not to rely entirely upon his brawn in order to fight his battles. He had earlier in the day marked the location of a traveling carnival that just happened to be in town at this time, and so he made towards it at double his normal speed, the city literally flying past him as he raced towards the well-lit carnival area, knowing full well that it would offer him the best means with which to escape his current situation. As Ranma chased after Pantyhose Taro he was unable to let loose at full strength upon his quarry. As not only did concern for Nabiki's welfare cause him to employ far less Chi than would be needed to take down the ten-foot giant man-brute, but a part of his Chi was needed to help guide Karina as she lifted and supported him in the air, his Arishasenken maneuver willing his body to be light as air yet needed to be blown along in order to keep pace with the swift-moving Taro. That which he could spare to lend to Latisha as his revived Salamander ally utilized her flame into an attack weapon was far from adequate to do more than blister Taro's furry hide were he actually to connect with one of his flame bursts. In frustration Ranma finally let loose creating a wall of fire that stopped Taro in his tracks and allowing Nabiki to liberate herself from his grasp. Unfortunately level of Chi needed to maintain the firewall had drained him more severely than expected, and before he could join her, his strength unexpectedly faltered and he hit the ground far more roughly than anticipated. Seeing this Taro kicked the grounded Ranma sending him flying backwards in an entirely uncontrolled manner before grabbing Nabiki and taking off again. Ranma tried to follow but by this time Kasumi had caught up. She was able to speed up his recovery using the assistance of his elements to heal him. No longer being chased Taro used the opportunity to transform back into his human form and render Nabiki unconscious by a pinched nerve and tie her up. Lifting his burden into his arms he used the darkness and confusion caused by his other self to enable his escape. Though Nabiki tried to play possum Taro wasn’t fooled. Nabiki's eyelids fluttered open and she slowly started to look around to take in her new surroundings. It did not take her long to determine that her wrists were bound behind her back and that her ankles were similarly tied with heavy nylon chords, but that otherwise she was quite unarmed if propped up against the wall of a cave in the middle of what appeared to be some kind of natural setting. He was also smart enough not to inform her exactly where they were. Impressed by how calm and collected was he explained that he took her because she was the obvious one in charge of the posse. Nabiki felt her disquiet mounting as she realized that Taro was a lot more intelligent than the lowly thug she had first taken him to be. He had cunning and craft enough to make things difficult, and it was obvious that a battle of wits between them would not be so one-sided as the sort of matches that she was used to handling with random encounters. She tried to once again point out that if he had just asked they would have helped him, but he just ignored her countering that he had been watching the group for most of the day so knew they wouldn’t go against their grand master and great grandfather. Nabiki tried to point out that he wouldn’t just be able to breeze past her family reminding him of Ranma’s elementals as well as Kasumi. However while surprised by Kasumi’s strength as well as Latisha and Sharil he wasn’t really all that worried as he had seen similar things in the past and he had already dealt with Ranma. the two continued there back and forth for a while Taro even going so far as to trick Nabiki in to thinking that he was going to kill her. However it ended when Nabiki went into labor. As she would be no good to him if she died or lost the baby he helped her deliver it. Taro walked out of the cave for a much needed break when he was ambushed by Ranma. Ranma was still to angry to fully utilize the Umisenken allowing Taro to block his attack. Ranma threw away the last bits of detachment that he had used to erect his Umisenken as his pent up rage and fury exploded into his fists as he launched an all-out assault upon his wife's abductor. The battle royal was in full swing with Ranma and Taro trading blows and exchanging complex maneuvers in an attempt to gain the advantage. Even high-level Chi attacks summoned up by Ranma were met with less than full effect as Taro could sense the energy build-ups with plenty of time to dodge the attacks. In due course his strength---though vastly superior to the average martial artist---began to flag while Taro kept on coming, and instinctive tactician that he was Ranma began to sense that he could not prevail directly, even though he was determined to use every means at his disposal to win his way back to the side of Nabiki. Taro taunted Ranma as he fended off one of his more basic Senken attacks causing him to break off his strategy of attack and fall back into a defensive crouch while extending one hand and summoning up the power of Nagisha. All at once the ground underneath Taro's feet began erupting upwards, catching him by surprise as dirt, rock and earth moved like a thing alive and formed itself around his body, then hardened into place, forming a body-harness that held the arrogant young man immobile. Taro fumed against his restraints as he lured Ranma closer. Ranma got in Taro’s face and demanded to know where Nabiki was only for him the other man to bring his head forward and slam his forehead hard against that of Ranma. As hard as his own head was from the many beatings he had taken in his young life Ranma still went down as though struck by a hammer, his concentration weakening ever so much that Taro was able to find the leverage he needed, and with a mighty heave and summoning of Ki-force he broke free from his rocky harness, shattering the stone and liberating himself with a few quick movements. Pressed as he was to his limits Ranma recovered his wind and decided to fall back on his last remaining elemental ally, calling upon Sobriel, who manifested in the space between the two men then formed her body into a void-like vacuum. Once again Taro was taken by surprise by the shift in tactics, but he had time enough to brace himself when a funnel of wind threatened to suck him into that void, and by digging his heels into the ground he resisted the pull of the furious suction. Unfortunately Ranma was not yet quite so skilled in manipulating Sobriel’s energies. So he was slow to pick up on Taro's strategy as he sideways past the edge of the vortex causing Ranma to suck in a large tree instead. Luckily Perfume showed up in time to destroy it before it could hit him. Taro whirled around just in time to see the rapidly hurtling form of Perfume racing towards him with the speed of a lithe panther, and before he had time to fully access his peril she was leaping into the air and pulling out a pair of titanium Tonfas, which same she raised defensively while her foot lashed out in a kick that solidly connected with his jawline. Perfume informed Ranma that Nabiki was in trouble and to go help her while she dealt with Taro. The battle had been joined for only a few furious minutes but already Perfume was panting as hard as if she had been practicing katas for an hour without relent. Going all-out like that took a lot out of a body, even one as well conditioned as her own, and it only took a second to slip up and make an amateurish mistake that left her foe an opening and as she had already discovered one such slip was enough to spell disaster. And so it was that when she charged him with a double-high/lo attack maneuver he was able to slip past her defenses and then all at once his foot slammed hard into her stomach and carried her backward with force enough to snap a normal spine in two. As she was still very acutely pain-sensitive, the blow was enough to send her entire nervous system on fire, and she doubled over in raw agony, unable to defend herself as Taro righted up again and seized his new advantage by picking her up and throwing her into a small stream at the base of the ravine activating her curse. He started to turn back when he was attacked by Kuno, Natsume and Keiko. Recognizing her Taro attempted to get back up only to be knocked down by Alison. He was quickly surrounded by them as well as Lenore, Chloe, and Kiima. Seeing this Taro activated his curse. Despite the combined strength and skill of the Tendo Posse they quickly found themselves largely overmatched by the cunning Taro, who led a merry chase through the woods, deliberately springing traps that caught several of them by surprise and caused the others to tread their way with more caution. Alison found herself dangling by one leg from a tree, Natsume pinned between two tress and the wooden spikes studding their sides, Kuno in a pitfall, while Lenore and Chloe floated side-by-side in a mud pit that felt very much like quicksand. Only Kiima and Keiko remained at liberty and in a condition to fight, but both were finding it difficult to overmaster a Taro who stood ten feet at the shoulder and had the power of several raging bulls at his disposal. Kiima was able to convince Keiko to use the Shadow Skill, unfortunately summoning the power to use it gave Taro enough time to shift from defense to attack with such speed and power that Keiko had no time at all to brace herself for the transition. Luckily she was caught by Guile. Glancing beyond her shoulder to view the towering form of the monster Guile instantly took him as the bad guy which Ryoga and Mousse quickly confirmed. Much to Mousse’s annoyance Ryoga surged forward, lacking the subtlety or experience to know better. It did not take long to learn first hand the folly of underestimating Taro. With great ease the monster moved to the side and stepped around behind the charging Ryoga, and then a single back-kick sent the boy tumbling head-over-heels into the side of a boulder, which shattered upon impact. Mousse then used his chains to wrap Taro up. As the posse explained to the confused Guile what was going on Taro had not wasted the time. By carefully testing the tensile strength of the chains he had learned all that he needed to know and now by expanding his chest he applied greater-then-imaginable pressure to cause the thick links to expand and snap like worn out buttons. With yet another flex of his arms he shattered them the rest of the way, sending chunks of broken metal whipping out in all directions, and then he snatched out with a hand to grip the end of one of those chains, which he began to spin around over his head with the clear intent of using it against his would-be tormentor. But Guile did not remain idle himself and at once unleashed one of his patented "Sonic Boom" offensives, surprising Taro, who was forced to throw the chain in its path rather than be scorched by the Ki blast, which was a cautioning illumination. Guile was about to attack only to pause at the arrival of Angel. The sight of yet another crazy entering this never-ending fray was beginning to tire even his considerable patience. So when Angel pulled her sword from concealment and moved at once to threaten Taro he lunged forward to quickly deal with her. However she moved even faster than he was prepared for, her sword scraping the ground and kicking up a storm of rock, dirt and gravel that pelted him like a shotgun blast, and then she was upon him with her sword blazing a lightning-swift series of strokes that caused him to stagger backwards, not immediately in pain though a few seconds later the sting of numerous cuts and bruises made him aware that even his tough hide was vulnerable to being sliced into ribbons. The fight was over in practically no time at all. Taro had belatedly attempted to lead his opponent into one of the remaining snare traps that he had set in these woods a few days before, but the blonde uncannily seemed to sense the threat and avoided it as though some little birdie in her ear had warned her of its presence. The effort cost Taro what was left of his flagging reserves, and he stumbled and fell backwards...and all at once the blonde was over him with sword raised over his head, ready to deliver the final blow like a well-practiced executioner completing her given assignment. Only to be stopped by Happosai who popping up almost miraculously before the enraged paladin, having taken the time to unzip her aluminum suite so that his tiny hands could have ready access to "the goodies." Angelique staggered away, removing one hand from the hilt of her sword as she tried to pry the pervert from her chest while Taro looked on in frank amazement, not quite able to comprehend the fact that he had just been rescued from the certain fate of not needing to shave every morning. It took but a few moments before the blonde managed to liberate herself from her unwanted attachment, but then she took the time zipping her suit back up rather than immediately charge after the little man, which was just time enough for Happosai to change Taro back. After Happosai explained Jusenkyo to her Angel realized her mistake and lowered her blade. By this point Frank and Trudy had caught up as well. Pegging Angel and Trudy as working for him Guile was immediate sympathetic when Frank informed him that they were freelancers. Everyone was about to force Taro to tell them what he did with Nabiki when he suddenly got to his feet and before anyone could stop him he activate his curse again. Angelique raised her sword while the others assumed immediate fighting crouches, but only Trudy remained where she was, directly in the path between the monster and Happosai. At a glance she appeared to be no more than a slender obstacle easily removed from his approach towards his dreaded master, but all at once Trudy moved and then stepped away...and Taro blinked in astonishment...then slowly began to keel over backwards. Cammy and Chun-li grabbed Taro and everyone made there way to the cave holding Nabiki. Upon getting there before anyone could say anything Kaneda roared to life and stormed his way out of the cavern. Ranma sensed what his wife's male incarnation was about to do and tried to stop him. Kaneda’s fist erupted with a powerful Ki-bolt that was aimed straight at Taro, but which would nonetheless catch everything else up in its path. Guile sensed the wave of energy, saw that Cammy and Chun-Li were too close to the blast, and that they each carried one of his offspring on their backs, and so he moved without hesitation, placing himself in the path of danger while raising both arms and calling up his own Ki to form a defensive shield. The wave hit him like a wrecking ball, but with both legs braced he was able to absorb and then repel it, sending it rebounding back the same way that it had come, which unfortunately left both Kaneda and Ranma in its path...and beyond them a still slumbering Nabiki, with baby at her own breast. Luckily Kasumi was there to intercept it. As Kanada apologized Happosai bounded forward, placing himself squarely before Taro. Disgusted by Taro’s actions he agreed to give him a new name. From now on Taro would be referred to as Shithead Taro. Taro fell to his knees, and the two women holding him decided not to bother trying to support him. Kanada apologized to Guile who noticed that he was becoming transparent. The spell Kasumi used to craft him was ending causing him to be leached back into Nabiki. Personality Taro is sadistic, arrogant, conscience-deprived, ruthless, ambitious, traitorous and power-hungry. He's completely dishonorable and finds it amusing to repeatedly cheat and betray during confrontations, or ambush and assault people who have done nothing to him. He's not used to being helped, and generally gives disdainful insults as thanks for offered aid. This is why he staked out the Tendo dojo and ambushed Keiko as he felt that they would naturally help their master and grandfather. Even after they told him otherwise. He doesn’t seem to have much respect for woman. While he understands that they can be good fighters and even treacherous and sneaky at times. He views them as good for nothing more than a moment's diversion. Taro is especially intolerant of Ranma because of this, as he sees him as weak for letting Nabiki take charge of thing sand tends to call him "Fem-boy, or similar derogatory epitets. Although the chosen insults can seem quite strange given Taro's own rather feminine appearance. Perhaps to remind himself of the shame his moniker brings, he wears a pair of pantyhose around his waist like a belt. Given the context of continuously using water to change Jusenkyo victims into their helpless animal forms to then knock them out, ambushing Keiko to improve things in his favor, setting up various traps, and even kidnapping a pregnant Nabiki, he apparently holds no affection for remotely honorable confrontations/tests of skill. He would rather increase his abilities through finding shortcut power sources than have to train to improve his prowess. However, Taro intensely despises and feels ashamed of his name, wishing to take the name “Manly Taro”, “Stud Taro”, or something similarly impressive-sounding, but the only way to change it by local custom is to have Happosai. Even if he is a cold, haughty and cruel person who regularly mocks everyone around him out of derision, Taro has still shown good moments. He's been willing to help Nabiki when she went into labor. Though it was more for practical reasons as she would be worthless to him dead watching Nabiki fight for her life and for the life of her baby affected him in ways that he barely understood but could not deny on a fundamental level. Powers & Abilities Pantyhose Taro is sharp, strong and a competent fighter. He is also quite ruthless and hard-set in his ways making him even more dangerous foe. Do to his name he was constantly bullied growing up in his village causing him to get into a lot of fights. Until he hit the road at age ten to train with any halfway decent Master he could find in his travels. Despite his arrogance many fighters agreed to take him on as a student as they wanted to help him turn his life around, by teaching him to look past his name. Taro quickly realized that masters never teach their students everything they knew. So went along with it pushing them to their limits so that they either showed him what they knew or receive a pounding. Once he learned everything he could he moved on to the next master. After hearing that the Tendo and Saotome’s were a family of hotshot martial artists Taro trained himself for months to be strong enough to get his name changed. At a casual glance he and Ranma seem physically well matched as opponents, but Taro has a definite advantage in strength, speed and skill, a measure of his time spent on the road that has hardened him as a street fighter. Ranma, who has grown up in a house with his mother and adopted family, lacks the raw experience of Nabiki and is as yet not fully her equal as a straight up combatant. Nabiki herself is not sure that could defeat him, judging by the way he had handled himself against Ranma and the others. Ranma seemed to have the advantage when he began to use his advanced senken maneuvers but Taro quickly took it back by continuously using bait and sucker-attack combinations. Trivia At some point Taro lost to Terry Bogart and Ryu Category:Continuum-59343921